After You’ve Watched White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, and A Christmas Story…..

I love the Christmas classic movies and watch as many as I can every year.  But there are many great Christmas films that don’t get mentioned as often and I like to remind families that these are worth making time for as well.

1.  The Nativity Story  This sincere and respectful story is a good way to remember that Christmas is about more than presents and parties.  “Whale Rider’s” Keisha Castle-Hughes has a shy but dignified and resolute air and she glows believably as the very young woman who is selected as the mother of Jesus. And “Drive’s” Oliver Isaac effectively conveys tenderness, doubt, courage, and transcendence as Joseph.

2. A Christmas Memory Truman Capote’s bittersweet memory of his childhood Christmas making fruitcakes with his elderly cousin, the only relative who cared about him is beautifully filmed with the magnificent Geraldine Page and Capote himself reading the narration.

3. Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas The California Raisins guys put together this Christmas special, with the highlight the funniest-ever performance of “Carol of the Bells.”

4. Come to the Stable Loretta Young and Celeste Holm are French nuns trying to raise money to build a hospital.  Their faith and goodness transforms those they meet.

5. Little Women “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents” is the first line of this classic novel based on the loving if sometimes tumultuous family of author Louisa May Alcott.  The movie opens with an important Christmas lesson about the joy of giving.

6. Christmas with a Capital C This is a movie about a small town squabble about whether there will be Christmas decorations in the town square has one of the sweetest resolutions of any faith-based film I’ve seen.

7. This Christmas I love this movie about a family with five adult children who return home to celebrate Christmas with their mother and youngest brother.  The outstanding cast includes Regina King, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, and Chris Brown.  Be sure to watch through the credits to see a great dance number.

8. Desk Set Before Google, companies had human beings to track down information. Katherine Hepburn plays the head of the all-female research department for a television network and Spencer Tracy is the engineer who is installing the company’s first computer, which takes up a whole wall and uses punch cards and vacuum tubes. Sparks fly — and not just in the equipment.

9. Die Hard Bruce Willis plays a cop visiting his estranged wife at her office Christmas party when the building is taken over by bad guys led by Alan Rickman in this action-movie classic.

10. The Bishop’s Wife Loretta Young plays the wife of a clergyman (David Niven) who has become caught up in the struggle to raise money for a new cathedral and lost sight of what really matters. A mysterious new assistant named Dudley (Cary Grant) shows up to remind both the bishop and his wife of the importance of faith, love, and simplicity over show. The remake is The Preacher’s Wife with Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington.

11. Home Alone This comedy smash hit stars Macauley Culkin as a little boy who is accidentally left home when his family goes away for the holidays and has to take care of himself and guard the house from a couple of inept thieves.  The slapstick is over the top but the message of Christmas is surprisingly touching.

12. The Ref Not every Christmas gathering is merry and bright. Denis Leary plays a jewel thief who hides out with a couple who have taken bickering to new depths of toxicity, played by Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis. Their bitter, competitive, and completely dysfunctional relatives include Christine Baranski and Glynis Johns.